On the loss of copy-raising and the development of infinitive complements

Abstract

This article deals with (non‑)finite complement clauses embedded under the inceptive phase predicate beginnen ‘begin’ in the history of German and illustrates how infinitives replaced finite clauses headed by the complementizer dass ‘that’. The main objective is to show that it was possible in Old High German (750–1050) to raise the subject from the embedded clause into the matrix subject position, crossing a CP boundary and leaving a pronominal copy in the dependent clause (copy-raising). Moreover, it is claimed that beginnen in its function as a subject control verb instantiates a recent development in the history of German and that this use developed out of a raising structure.